Hi,

I live in Atlanta, GA. I'm a landlord who recently won an eviction case against a non-paying tenant; the tenant was given 7 days to vacate the premises by the Fulton County Magistrate Court. He has two more days left. On the morning following the 7th day (which happens to be this Friday), I will return to the court to get the Writ of Possession.

Once I have the Writ of Possession, is it required that the sheriff / marshall be present? Or can I call an eviction crew to move the tenant's belongings from my property without the sheriff / marshall being present?

Really, I just want to be able to change the locks and am not sure when I'm legally allowed to do that.

My research of Georgia Law shows the Writ is automatic and, in fact, is an order to the Sheriff/Marshall to supervisor the removal.

"If the tenant has not paid the rent the court will ultimately issue a "Writ" of possession. This is an order to the Sheriff or Marshall in the County to go to the premises and physically remove the tenant and all of their belongings. Once you obtain the writ, the Sheriff will go to the residence and supervise, but will not actually remove any property"

Good research Judy!

I would still think you'd need to "trigger" the court for the writ to be issued. Unless you tell them, they have no way of knowing if the tenant's gone or not.

The clerk of court should be able to tell you how long it will take from the time the Writ is issued, until the sheriff will actually meet you there (that's when you'd take your "crew") to change locks, secure the property, etc. It's been my experience that the writ is ordered, the tenant gets one, final 24 hour notice from the sheriff(saying "we'll be there tomorrow and any people or possessions not gone at that time will be removed"), then the Sheriff will contact you the next day to tell you when to meet them at the property. I'm sure this varies widely from place to place, and depends on how busy the sheriff is and a ton of other factors. I've actually had to go all the way through the eviction process to this point twice (never in Georgia, I should add). Once, it all occurred within 48 hours from the time the Writ was issued. The other time it took a full week. They claimed short staffed and training going on within the sheriff's office.?

I've always been strongly advised to steer clear of the property and the tenant until such time that the sheriff actually is there to meet you. (Don't want to screw up your whole case at this point because the tenants gets sympathy from the judge because you were "harassing" them or something silly.)

In Hyatsville, Maryland does the Marshall have to be present on the inside of the property will the people who are evicting you are there. Reason asking; both marshalls were outside of the property while the eviction staff was inside packing and boxing up the items, we notice that a lot of our small items were missing i.e. blue ray dvd's playstation games and xbox games etc.